Jaitley set to present India’s national budget

New Delhi, Feb 28:Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was set to present India’s national budget for 2015-16 amid high expectations from all stakeholders in lifting overall growth, reinforced by the positive agenda set by the Economic Survey for “big bang” reforms.

“As the new government is to present its first full year budget, it appears India has reached a sweet spot and that there is a scope for big bang reforms now,” the survey, tabled by Jaitley Friday said, preparing the ground for the latest annual budget.

Ahead of budget presentation, scheduled at 11 am in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley met President Pranab Mukherjee, who was himself a finance minister, and was also present at the customary meeting of the cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside Parliament House.

In the meanwhile, the stock markets were all fired up, hoping for some positive outcomes from the budget to lift corporate fortunes, leading to the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) jump some 225 points, or 0.75 percent.

The gain followed another rally Friday that saw the 30-share benchmark index gain zoom 474 points or 1.65 percent, based on the positive tone set by the Economic Survey, which predicted an 8-8.5 percent growth for the next fiscal and said double digit expansion was now within reach.

This will be Jaitley’s second annual budget, with the first one tabled in the middle of the year after a major victory in the national elections for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In a way, the finance minister then had himself raised expectations from his second budget due Saturday. (IANS)